Papers (Selection) by Zora Simic
AUSTRALIAN HUMANITIES REVIEW, 67, 17-31, 2020
Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, 2018
Australian Historical Studies 51(2): May 2020 , 2020
The transnational influence of Chiswick Women’s Aid and their community house, considered the fir... more The transnational influence of Chiswick Women’s Aid and their community house, considered the first feminist refuge, as well as that of its founder, Erin Pizzey, author of the 1974 international best-seller Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear, has been widely noted. Yet despite such acknowledgements, their formative influence remains largely unexamined. Without overstating their significance, I pursue here a more thorough examination of their impact, in order to consider both the shared and specific features of feminist mobilisations around what came to be known as domestic violence in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. A transnational approach reveals how Pizzey and Chiswick inaugurated the feminist refuge movement and seeded a feminist critique of domestic violence, but that there were variations and limits to this foundational influence. Accordingly, Pizzey and Chiswick are freshly interpreted as part of a wider, multi-faceted and evolving feminist response to domestic violence.
History Australia Vol 11: 1, Apr 2014
In the postwar period, demographers and politicians both recognised that marriage was a good indi... more In the postwar period, demographers and politicians both recognised that marriage was a good indicator of migrant assimilation. Getting married indicated a commitment to making Australia home, and to the new domesticated version of the ‘Australian way of life’. Patterns of intermarriage were especially suggestive of the willingness of migrants to marry outside of their ethnic group, and of Australian society to accept migrants as marriage partners. Yet, the labour imperatives of the postwar immigration program also produced a surplus of men across a number of ethnic groups, some of whom became ‘hard-core’ bachelors. Read in the context of a persistent imbalance of the sexes, it is argued that marriage also revealed the limits of assimilation.
‘Women’s Writing’ and ‘Feminism’: A history of intimacy and estrangement
Outskirts: Feminisms along the edge, May 2013
Lilith: A Feminist History Journal No. 17-18 , 2012
Feminist Review 95, 2010
"‘Feminist competency’ is a nascent term that has been identified in three general critiques of c... more "‘Feminist competency’ is a nascent term that has been identified in three general critiques of contemporary feminism that emerged in the course of research for The Great Feminist Denial (2008), a book on feminist debates in Australia that I co-authored with Monica Dux. The first critique highlights the importance of feminist knowledge,typically generated through the academy, to feminist identification. The
second posits a perceived lack of feminist competency as an obstacle to feminist affiliation. The third assessment insists that spokespeople for feminism should be sufficiently competent. Using these responses to feminism as a starting point, combined with a reflection on my own framing as an academic feminist in the public sphere, I make a case for the potential value of ‘feminist competency’ as a means to assess the impact of academic feminism, in Australia and elsewhere.
Journal of Australian Studies 34: 4, Dec 2010
In 1994, an education program for pregnant teenagers and mothers was introduced at Plumpton High ... more In 1994, an education program for pregnant teenagers and mothers was introduced at Plumpton High School in Sydney’s western suburbs, an area associated with various social problems, including teenage pregnancy, youth unemployment and low secondary education retention rates. The initiative prompted widespread media coverage, with a particular focus on the role of the Plumpton High’s Principal Glenn Sargeant as the ‘Patriarch’ of the school and in particular of the teenage mothers. In 2003, the screening of an ABC documentary series on Plumpton High, Plumpton High Babies, renewed and amplified interest in the program and the ‘problem’ of teenage pregnancy more generally. In this article, I use the example of Plumpton High to trace the construction and representation of teenage pregnancy as a social problem in Australia from the
1970s. I also suggest that while the media emphasis on Principal Sargeant reinforced the ‘fallen girls’ archetype, the experiences captured by the documentary also offered alternative perspectives on the lives of 'Girl Mothers'.
Journal of Australian Studies Vol 32: 2, Jun 2010
The particular and related histories of the Western Sydney suburbs of Green Valley and Cabramatta... more The particular and related histories of the Western Sydney suburbs of Green Valley and Cabramatta provide evidence that the category ‘westie’ was transformed throughout the 1980s under the impact of migration and within the context of a discernable Australian nationalism. By adding oral history to census data and local media, it is also possible to understand how ‘westie’ was simultaneously a category of assimilation, exclusion and local and national pride. The larger relevance of such a discussion is the way a history of the category of ‘westie’ can illuminate histories of multiculturalism, Australian nationalism and suburbia.
History Australia 4: 1, 2007
Australian Feminist Studies
Books by Zora Simic
The Great Feminist Denial (with Monica Dux)
Book Reviews by Zora Simic
History Australia, 2021
Book review
Review essays of recent works of Australian gay and lesbian history.
Zora Simic (2017) Gay and l... more Review essays of recent works of Australian gay and lesbian history.
Zora Simic (2017) Gay and lesbian history now, History Australia, 14:2,
315-321
History Australia 7: 2, 2010
Conference Presentations by Zora Simic
Book Chapters by Zora Simic
Gender Violence in Australia: Historical Perspectives. Editors: Piper A, Stevenson A, Monash University Publishing, p. 3-19, 2019
Everyday Revolutions Remaking Gender, Sexuality and Culture in 1970s Australia. Editors: Arrow M, Woollacott A ., 2019
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Papers (Selection) by Zora Simic
second posits a perceived lack of feminist competency as an obstacle to feminist affiliation. The third assessment insists that spokespeople for feminism should be sufficiently competent. Using these responses to feminism as a starting point, combined with a reflection on my own framing as an academic feminist in the public sphere, I make a case for the potential value of ‘feminist competency’ as a means to assess the impact of academic feminism, in Australia and elsewhere.
1970s. I also suggest that while the media emphasis on Principal Sargeant reinforced the ‘fallen girls’ archetype, the experiences captured by the documentary also offered alternative perspectives on the lives of 'Girl Mothers'.
Books by Zora Simic
Book Reviews by Zora Simic
Zora Simic (2017) Gay and lesbian history now, History Australia, 14:2,
315-321
Conference Presentations by Zora Simic
Book Chapters by Zora Simic